Toy railway



Feb. 5 1924.

A. R. FERGUSSON TOY RAILWAY Filed 'pril 17. 1923 Patented Feb. 5, 1924.

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ALAN R. FERGUSSON, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

TOY RAILWAY.

Application filed April 17, 1-923.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALAN R. FnnsUssoN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Toy Railways, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to toy or miniature railways, an object thereofbeing to provide improved means for releasably connecting together thejuxtaposed ends of a plurality of toy track sections.

A furtherobject of this invention is to provide in a toy or miniaturerailway a wire rail section having at opposite ends thereof differentmeans for releasably connecting or joining said section to diil'erentkinds of toy or miniature track sections.

A further object of this invention is to provide in a toy or miniaturerailway, means for releasably maintaining a pair or wire rail sectionsend to end, such means being detachably connected to the rails of eachsection and forming a releasable springjoint adapted to be easily andoffectively manipulated.

A further object of this invention is to provide in a toy Orminiature-railway improved means for detachably joining a pair of wirerail sections together and preferably forming a spring or tension joint.

A -tuncher object of this invention is to provide a toy railway sectionhaving at one end means for forming a dowel joint with an adjacentsection, and means at. the opposite end of the section for formingtherewith a spring joint with another adjacent section.

@ther objects of this invention will appear in the following des riptionand appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawingsforming a part of this specification, wherein like reference charactersindicate corresponding parts in the several views and wherein Fig. l isa plan view partly broken away illustrating a pair of wire tracksections embodying my invention; Fig." 2 is a plan view partly brokenaway illustrating my invention; Fig. 3 is a cross section takensubstantially on line 3-3 of Fig. 2-; Fig. 4. is a detail plan view ofone form of rail clamp and Fig. 5 is a detail perspective viewillustratin-g a somewhat modified form of rail clamp, with a pair ofrails secured in position.

Before explaining in detailthe present Serial No. 632,601.

improvement and mode of operation there of, I desire to have itunderstood that the invention is not limited to the details ofconstruction and arrangement of parts which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawlngs, since the invention is capable of otherombodiments,v and, that the phraseology which I employ is for thepurpose of description and not of limitation.

The present invention comprises in general a pair of track sectionspreferably constructed with wire or cylindrical rails mounted upon wireor cylindrical cross ties and secured thereto Means, preferably in theform of aclamping member is provided for releasably joining thejuxtaposed ends of the rail sections and forming an interlocking tensionor spring joint. At the opposite end of one of the wire rail sectionsmeans is provided tor forming a releasable dowel joint with an adjacenttrack section. As a result of this construction the wire rail section isprovided with means at one end for formin a spring or tension joint, orinterlockjoint. with an adjacent wire rail section. and is also providedthe opposite end with means for forming a releasable dowel joint withanother adjacent section. Thus, it will be seen that by means of suchimaroved track section, the same may be utilized for interchangeablyconnecting wire rail sections to various kinds of track sections havingdowel forming connections.

Referring to the drawings it will be seen that wire track section isprovided comprising wire or cylindrical rails 9 and 10 mounted in spacedrelation upon wire or cylindrical cross ties l1, and secured thereto asby spot-welding. The wire rail 10 at one end is provided with adowel-reoeiving portion 12, which may be formed either by boring a holein the end ofthe rail or in the manner illustrated in my copendingapplication, Serial No. 632,600, filed April 17, 1923. "The wire rail 9terminates at the corresponding end thereof in a reduced or dowel end13, which may be formed by turning down the end of the wire, or in anyother suitable manner. The opposite ends of the wire rails 9 and 10extend freely beyond the wire tie 11 a sufficientdistance to form springends- For releasably joining the ends of a pair of sections, a guideclamp 14 is provided, which may be bent up from a piece of sheetas byspot-welding,

metal or coiled at the opposite edges thereof to form curvedrail-receiving portions 15. .The bent up edges are provided withoppositely located openings or slots 16, and the free spring ends ofwire rails 9 and 10 are provided with laterally projecting lugs 17 whichare preferably pinched from the metal of the rails. The adjacent tracksection preferably comprises wire or cylindrical rails 18 and 19 mountedupon wire cross ties and preferably secured thereto by spot-welding. Theends of the rails 18' and 19 are located in the curved guide portions 15and are preferably, as shown in Figs. 1 andb, spot-weldcd thereto as at21. It will readily be seen from this construction that the rails 9 and10 may be easily connected to the clamp plate 14 by contracting the endsthereof sufficiently to permit the lugs 17 to clear the guide por tions15 and spring into the openings 16,

and by contracting the rails the spring or tension joint may be easilybroken.

l-i's illustrated in Fig. 2 the rails 9 and 10 are releasably connectedin the same manner toa clamp plate 1 which however in this instance isconstructed with partiallycoiled rail-receiving portions 15 having twopairs of openings 27 and 28. The rails 9 and 10 are joined to the plate1% by contracting the rails and s arin ine the lu s 17 into 0 en- C) O Din s 27. The ad'acent track section in this instance, is connected tothe clamp 14 in the same manner, and the wire rails 29 and 30 thereofare therefore provided with lugs 31 and 32 adapted to be sprung into theopenings 28 by contracting the rails 29 and 30.

It will be seen from this construction that the detachable clamp plate1% is adapted to releasably join the several w'xe rail ends undertension, or. in other words, forms a spring connection, not only withthe rails 9 and 10, but also with the rails 29 and 30. This improvedspring joint between the ends of a pair of sections is advantageous forthe reason that all the ends of the wire track sections may be madeuniform thereby giving the child greater latitude in using the tracksections with crossovers, switches, and various combination systems.Furthermore, by means of the detachable clamp for connecting undertension all of the rail ends, uniformity of construction is obtainedwhich results in a decrease in cost of production.

'By 'virtue of the means 12 and 18 for forming a dowel joint, it will befurther seen that the wire rail sections maybe interchangeably used withother forms of track sections having dowel connections. As illustratedtherefore, in Figs. 2 and 3, this wire rail section is connected to atrack section comprising rails 22'and 23 bent or formed up from sheetmetal. These rails are mounted upon suitable cross ties 24 also formedup from sheet metal, and having tongues or lugs 25 struck up from themetal of the cross tie and securely bent over the flanges 26 of therails 22 and 23. The rail 22 is hollow, thereby forming a means at itsend for receivingjthedowel 18. The rail 23 is provided atit s end with adowel 27 which is inserted in the hollow sheet metal rail and'heldtherein, this dowel being adapted to extend into the tubular end 1.2 ofthe wire rail 10. From thisconstruction it will be seen that the wirerails 9 and 10 are provided at one enld'with means for forming a springjoint with another wire rail section, and are provided at the oppositeend with dowel means 12 and-13 for interchangeably connecting the sameto the rails of various forms of track sections, such as the sheet metalrails 22 and 23. By virtue of this construction therefore, the latitudeof use of the wire rail section is greatly increased, therebyconsiderably, ex:

tending the range of adaptation thereof and hence increasing itsutility.

It is to be understood that by describing in detail herein anyparticular formystructure, or arrangement, it is not intended to limitthe invention beyond the terms of the several claims or the requirementsof the prior art. 7 g g r 7 Having thus explained the nature of my saidinvention and described a way of constructing and using the same,although without attempting to set forth all of the forms in which itmay be made, or all of the modes of its use, I claim: r

1. In a toy railway, the combination of a pair of track sections, andmeans for releasably connecting said sections together, said having areleasable connection with each section and including means for forminga spring joint betweenthesections. 7

'2. In a toy railway the combination of a pair 'of track sectionsincluding wire formed rails, and detachable means for releasablyconnecting said sections together.

8. In a toy railway the combination of a pair of wire rails, anddetachable means for releasably joining saidrails end to end.

4:; In a toy railway the'combination of a pair of track sections,andmeans comprising a clamp adapted to be detachably connected to saidsections and forming a releasable spring joint.

5. In a toy railway the combination of two pairs of wire rails, andmeans for maintaining said rails end to end and detachably connected toeach thereof.

two pairs of wire rails, and means for maintaining said rails end toend, said means having detachable interlocking connection with all therails.

i 6. In a toy railway the combination of 7. A toy railway sectionincluding a wire rail having a lug adjacent to one end thereof and adowel at the opposite end thereof.

8. A toy railway section including a wire rail having a lug adjacent toone end thereof and a dowel receiving portion at the opposite endthereof.

9. A toy railway section comprising wire supporting means and wire railscarried thereby, said section having at one end means for forming adowel joint with an adjacent section, and means at the opposite end ofsaid section for forming therewith a spring joint with an adjacentsection.

10. A toy railway section comprising supporting means and a pair of wirerails carried thereby, said rails having at one end means for forming adowel joint with an adjacent section, and means at the opposite end ofsaid rails for forming therewith an interlocking joint with an adjacentsection.

11. A toy railway section comprising supporting means and rails carriedthereby, said section having at one end means for forming adowel jointwith an adjacent section, and means at the opposite end of said sectionfor forming therewith a spring joint with an adjacent section.

12. A toy railway section comprising a pair of cylindrical rails havingat one end means for forming a dowel joint with an adjacent section andhaving the opposite ends thereof forming free spring ends.

13. In a toy railway the combination of a pair of rails located end toend, means for joining the same together under tension and comprising aclamp adapted to be releasably interlocked with each rail.

14. n a. toy railway the combination of a pair of rails located end toend, means for joining the same together under tension and comprising aclamp adapted to be releasably interlocked with each rail, said clampand rails having one an opening and the other lugs extending thereinto.

15. In a toy railway the combination of wire formed supporting means andwire formed rails carried thereby, one of said rails having a freespring end and one thereof having a dowel end.

16. In a toy railway the combination of wire formed supporting means andwire formed rails carried thereby, one of said rails having a freespring end and one of said rails having a dowel-receiving end.

17. A toy railway section comprising wire ties and wire rails connectedthereto, said rails having at one end means for forming a dowel jointwith an adjacent track section, and having at the opposite end means forforming a. spring joint with an adjacent track section.

18. In a toy railway the combination of a wire formed track section anda sheet metal track section, said sections having cooperating means forreleasably joining the same together.

19. In a toy railway the combination of a wire formed track section anda sheet metal track section, said sections having cooperating dowelmeans for releasably joining the same together.

20. In a. toy railway the combination of a pair of track sections, onethereof including a wire rail and the other including a sheet met-a1rail, and means for joining said rails together.

21. In a toy railway the combination of a wire rail and a tubular metalrail located end to end, and means for releasably joining said railstogether.

22. In a toy railway the combination of a pair or" track sectionsincluding wire ties and wire rails, and means for joining said sectionstogether and detachably connected to each thereof.

23. In a toy railway the combination of a pair of track sections eachincluding wire ties and wire rails welded thereto, and means for joiningsaid sections together and detachably connected to each thereof.

24. In a toy railway the combination of two pairs of rails located endto end, and

leans for releasably joining the same together and comprising a clampadapted to be detachably connected to all of said rails.

25. In a toy railway the combination of three track sections adapted tobe located end to end, spring means for releasably joining one pair ofsaid sections, and means for forming a dowel joint between the othersection and one of said pair of sections.

26. In a toy railway the combination of a pair of track sectionsincluding each a wire rail having a free spring end, and means forconnecting said ends together in substantial prolongation.

Signed at Bufialo, N. Y., day of April, 1923.

ALAN R. FERGUSSON.

this 12th

